Wednesday, March 12, 2014

When The Moon Hits Your Eye...

Once the children arrived at school we worked more on our seahorse by gluing on different color tissue paper. We began Morning Meeting reflecting on the seahorse by looking at the cover of the book Mr. Seahorse by Eric Carle to see what we still need to add. 


"This!" said Scarlett and Nico making triangles with their arms.


"Aha ," said Jenny. "I think you mean fins." So we talked about how fish have fins. The next step is to add fins to the seahorse. 

This led to our next conversation about the moon. We looked at the moon in the book Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me by Eric Carle. "How did we say we would make the moon again?" Jenny asked the class. "Tiny or big," Brandon recalled. As we began to read the book to think of how to make our moon, we noticed that the copy of the book in the classroom is too small. So, we came up with the super idea of going to the Jefferson Market Library to get a bigger copy. The teachers drew a map of how we would get to the library. Then we explained that sometimes when you go the library they do not always have the book you want. So the next step would be to buy it at the bookstore if the library does not have it.

We sang Aikendrum before French and then it was off to the library! The children were amazing as we went on our big adventure. They held on to the rope, watched were they going, and were so careful.: Hooray  for the Sweet Peas Class! 

When we arrived at the library, Harry took pictures of us on the library steps. Once inside we asked the librarian for our book, but the library did not have it! So Harry is going to buy the book for us at the bookstore so that we can have a BIG copy. However, we did borrow three books so that we can explore the moon! Thank you Harry so much! Great work today Sweet Peas class!
 "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie That's Amore!








Tuesday, March 11, 2014

How Sweet It Is...Sweet Pictures and Sweet Friends!

Everyone was very excited for picture day! The children played Octopus' Garden by The Beatles with instruments. Hudson requested Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys and we had so much fun dancing. The children explored the sandbox, train table with Lego's, worked with play dough, and made a paint collage with dot dot and tempera paint. Scarlett noticed that when she turned the brush upside down, it created wiped the paint, and created made lines. Then we out for a walk with the Sunflowers class. We heard  many different sounds including a bird, a taxi, and a helicopter. The children concluded the day by hugging each "good-bye" saying "see you next time!"





Thursday, March 6, 2014

Come On and Play With Me!

When Max came to school, Max spelled his name with the letter beads. Hudson was feeling a little because he missed his mommy so began Morning Meeting playing instruments to Octopus' Garden by The Beatles and sang Come On and Play With Me.




At Snack, we noticed that Brandon had pancakes so read Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle. While the Sunflowers and Daisys' classes were at the Art Studio in Tribeca, we explored their classrooms. We mixed watercolor and shaving cream together on round paper to make moons. Brandon and Max built a very long train track. Then we went on a subway train adventure in the Sunflowers classroom. Before lunch, we took turns throwing the beach ball to the number of syllables in our names.

What a fun and busy morning we had! 








Wednesday, March 5, 2014

From Horses to Moons

Katya, Lili's mom, began our morning reading The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse by Eric Carle and Harold and The Purple Crayon while we ate snack. At Morning Meeting, we talked about how Eric Carle makes some of his pictures by collaging with tissue paper like in  The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse. We passed orange tissue paper around the circle for the children to feel. "Soft" and "Sticky" were some of the descriptive words the children used as they felt the paper. Next, we had French with Deborah. During Free Play, the children played with Lego's and purple play dough.

At Reflective Meeting, we laid all of Eric Carle's books that we have in the classroom on the rug.  Each child picked a book and looked at all the pages. Once they had found their favorite page, they shared with the class what they liked about that page. Then we laid every one's favorite pictures on the rug and asked the children which picture they would like to create. "Moon!" everyone responded. Then we asked the children if they would like to make a big moon or a tiny moon. Next, Monday we will be making tiny moons just like the moon in Eric Carle's books!








Grandpa likes the red crocodile.


Harry likes the yellow duck.


Debbie likes the ladybugs.


Scarlett likes the ingredients page in Pancakes, Pancakes.


Nico likes the cricket.



Jamie likes the caterpillar on the cover of Eric Carle's book about shapes.


Lili likes the hermit crab.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Mr. Seahorse!

We started Morning Meeting, waking up our bodies by bending, stretching, and wiggling. Then we talked about how this week we are reading books by Eric Carle and that he writes the stories and makes his pictures for his books. Scarlett took all the books off the bookshelf and brought them over to the rug for us to look at.



Each child picked a book and took a few minutes to look at the pictures in the book they chose. Next, we shared our page with the class. 
Grandpa likes the bee and the flower in The Very Quiet Cricket.


Hudson likes the seahorse in Mr. Seahorse.


Scarlett likes the turtles in Rooster's Off to See the World


Max likes the train in 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo.


Brandon likes the moon in The Very Hungry Caterpillar


We asked the children after looking at all the pages, we asked them what they would like to make: a bee and flower, a train, moon, turtle, or seahorse. "Seahorse!" the children agreed. First, we read Mr. Seahorse together. Then Jenny drew a seahorse and the children painted it with their choice of watercolor paint. Then they dipped Lego's in tempera paint and stamped them onto the seahorse to make circles.

Before lunch, we went on a dragon hunt. Then we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You? and Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle.





Monday, March 3, 2014

Hooray for Purple Cake Day!

Today we celebrated Purple Cake Day. At Morning Meeting, we talked about how there are some children who are unable to go to school, we are raising money so that they can go to school, and that's why we are having Purple Cake Day! We sang I Have Favorite Color and Purple Is it's Name-O to the tune of B-I-N-G-O. We read Harold and the Purple Crayon. We also danced to purple shape Hokey Poky. Each child was given a purple circle, square, and triangle. When their shape was called they had to Put Their Shape In and Put Their Shape Out and so on.

The children decorated crowns, collaged with purple materials, played with purple snow in the sensory table, and explored purple sand with their fingers. During Music, Evan sang and the children danced around to Purple People Eater.

Inspired by Harold and the Purple Crayon, we spread out a very BIG piece of white paper along the floor and gave each child a purple crayon to draw with. Then we made purple play dough and painted ice with purple tempera paint using our fingers. During lunch Erica, Harry's mom, read Harold and the Purple Crayon to us again and Today Is Monday by Eric Carle for Literacy Week.

Today truly was purplicious!